Any hope my film has not been destroyed?

[Oren Grad]

Brian, I'm sure the black plastic is light tight but it's not clear whether the plastic envelopes are properly sealed or have open ends that are just folded over. I havn't used ilford sheet film before so I don't know how it's packaged.

Open ends that are folded over. Sorry...

[John Olsen]

Test from the middle of the stack. The top sheets may have protected the lower ones. At least that's been my own experience with enlarger paper when I've suffered from brain failure. My condolences in any case.

[E. von Hoegh]

That shipping agent must have been trained by the TSA.

Who are in turn trained by Burger King.

[B.S.Kumar]

One 'service' they provide is to take a few pictures of the package contents when it arrives.

Was it sent that way, or did the agent remove it from the sealed envelope? Was the package clearly marked "Film. Do not open."?

Kumar

[W K Longcor]

Maybe the agent was really good at his job and opened the envelopes to count the sheets to make sure they were all there!

[BetterSense]

In my experience the black bags are light tight, and you can get away with a lot in terms of unfolding the ends. In other words, if the ends stayed mostly folded oven, the film will be fine.

Also, when film is stacked up, the sheets in the middle are pretty safe. So I would definitely test it; you might lose the sheets from the ends, and the middle may only have a slight fogging around the edge which is typically blocked by the film holder anyway.

[E. von Hoegh]

In my experience the black bags are light tight, and you can get away with a lot in terms of unfolding the ends. In other words, if the ends stayed mostly folded oven, the film will be fine.

Also, when film is stacked up, the sheets in the middle are pretty safe. So I would definitely test it; you might lose the sheets from the ends, and the middle may only have a slight fogging around the edge which is typically blocked by the film holder anyway.

The problem is, the dumbass probably took the film out of the envelopes. Why people can't get it through their hatracks that film is light-sensitive will always elude me.
He paid for unexposed film. He should get it, without a trace of fog on any sheet. It will be a miracle if the film isn't ruined.

[Andrew O'Neill]

They look like they have been opened. Ilford doesn't seal them.

[Michael_qrt]

OK, so Ilford doesn't seal the plastic envelopes. Hopefully the ends were left folded over, it seems some have had luck before in this case. As I said I'll test the film when I receive it and post the results here.

The film was sent in the normal Ilford film box (they also provided a picture of this, which would have been great if that's all they did), which obviously says photographic film all over it. I'm contacting the shipping agent about it but ultimately I may not have much recourse if they don't want to do anything about it.

Thanks for all the responses, I think I'm annoyed just as much about the waste of materials as I am about the financial loss.

[Ian David]

Yeah, your problem is not that the black plastic bags were taken out of the boxes. Rather, if they took the bags out of the boxes to check contents, you can bet that they also opened the bags. I will eat my hat if your film is not significantly fogged...